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Wednesday, June 03, 2009

WCBOE Policy On Children With Head Lice

Joe,

It was to my dismay when I received a phone call to pick my child up from school due to head lice. I cringed wondering how this could happen. I proceeded to pick my child up and went through hours of regimented shampooing and de-lousing of child and home that very day, all day. I decided to call the school nurse to find out when to bring my child back to school and that is when I found out exactly how this could happen! I was told by the nurse that it is WCBOE policy that as long as a child did not have any live lice they could come back to school. I asked what does that mean and to my astonishment she told me as long as no live lice are present the child would be allowed back in school even with “NITS STILL PRESENT IN THEIR HAIR”. Well hello but nits are eggs and lice can and will hatch and re-infest. I just wanted to inform all of the parents that went through this hell how and why it happened.

Signed,

Anonymous to protect my child.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

the policy must have changed then. when my child was in 1st grade she got them and we were told she could not come back until she was nit free. everyday for a week she was checked and if no lice or nits were found she could go to school if not she had to go home.

Anonymous said...

Only get lice if you are clean. How wonderful huh?

Anonymous said...

Dont waste your money on the stuff at the store, go to the dollar store and by plain old mint or peppermint mouthwash, live lice and nits gone in one usuage!!!

Anonymous said...

BOE IS STARTING TO SUCK!

Anonymous said...

There is no one any cleaner than myself or my child and she was sent home for lice. You get it from others. That was a very embarrassing time in my life for my family.

UR Nasty People said...

There was an outbreak of lice at the jail this week, too. Women were locked down for days.

Anonymous said...

You were told wrong. There can be no nits. There can be no nits. You need to use a comb to get those out.

Anonymous said...

Two years ago my child got lice at school as well, and she was allowed to come back as long as there were no bugs...nits were ok! I chose not to send her back because it was thursday she was sent home, so she had a weekend at home...it wasnt a fun one, as I was picking at her head the whole time and making my husband check mine!! Good luck to you! Its not fun!

Anonymous said...

My kid came home from school with lice also. I went to price de-lousing shampoo etc. and could not believe the prices. So I went home and looked for something in my garage. I had a can of WD-40. I thought why not? By the time my son went to bed he was lice and nit's free. WD-40. What will they think of next.

Anonymous said...

Wicomico County Schools are INFESTED with head lice. My poor child got lice from school FOUR times this year. Certainly not getting it from home or church. I have each time took off work and spent HOURS to delice, shampoo with RID, combed and denitted their long hair, washed all bedding and cleaned my entire house top to bottom. What a PITA!!

The schools do not how ever let them come back with nits and they have to be checked proof of treatment has to be made at our elementary school.

I'm ready to shave heads!

Anonymous said...

The WBOE buses do not respond to incidences of lice and do not clean the buses. That is where much of it is coming from.

Anonymous said...

ANON 450 PM>The WBOE IS NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING! School is almost over. Besides the only ones left will be NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.Let them delice each other.

Anonymous said...

Shave em bald then there is no place for the nit. After all they have to have hair to attach the nit to.

Anonymous said...

I've been down the lice road. You can help prevent them by using a tea tree shampoo such as Paul Mitchell. For some reason, lice can't stand them. My nephew was the only one on his little league team to not get them when my sister in law was using the tea tree shampoo. As my great grandma so wisely said "there's no shame in gettin them, only in keepin them!"

Anonymous said...

Most of the time, parents treat the child but do not think about the bedding, clothing, hats, etc.

It's especially prevalent in cold weather months when coats are hung next to each other in the coat closets.

Make sure you treat the bedding with hot water (bleach if you can), stuffed animals, vacuum mattresses and carpets in bedrooms, etc.

Anonymous said...

Well, the kids probably would not have lice if the damned board of ed would hire someone to come in and PROPERLY clean and maintain the schools. Go look at all the elementary, middle, and high schools. I cringe to use the restrooms because they are not properly CLEANED!!! The schools also look in shambles because all of the half-a$$ed work from the contractors. I guarantee the new Bennett High will look like the old one on the inside in about 3 to four years. Then the board would be asking for funds for a new high school. This situation now is called lack of taking proper care of what you have got. Parkside has a small infestation of rats, mice, bats, and who knows what else. I do not care how some of them say how "clean" the schools are, but they are not clean at all.

Moon Willow said...

Let's clear up the nits issue: if the nits are whte, the egg is dead. If they're black, they're still alive.

WD-40 again? Wow, this stuff does everything!

Chriso12385 said...

now you see i dont think that i would have a problem with lice due to the fact that i am bald (by choice)

Anonymous said...

The school policies have changed because the American Academy of Pediatrics states:

"Criteria for Return to School
A child should be allowed to return to school after
proper treatment. Some schools have had “no nit” policies under which a child was not allowed
to return to school until all nits were removed. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of School Nurses (www.nasn.org/positions/nitfree.htm) discourage such policies."

this is found on http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/pediatrics%3B110/3/638.pdf and is located at the end of page 641 and top of 642.

It sucks, but if that's what the experts say then that's what the schools are going to do.

Emily said...

Paul Mitchell has some really good products for treating head lice. Thoroughly massaging the hair and then carefully combing really helps get the lice out. Hope you find something that works the best for you, good luck!